Monday, 5 March 2012

WFC in 100 Objects - #17 - SS VERA

One suspects that few of the
objects to make this list will date from the nineteenth century; our club might
have its origins in Henry Grover’s activities of 1881 but few of his
contemporaries are around now to tell the tale, less still to testify to the
right to inclusion of peculiar supporters, trinkets or objects of the
time.Nonetheless one object of
the era is an indisputable candidate for inclusion, and it’s a big one…

Vera in 1891 - From http://www.wrecksite.eu/wrecked-on-this-day.aspx?15/11/2011

WFC in 100 Objects - #17 - SS VERA

In March 1899, the channel
steamship the SS Stella was on an early
season crossing from Southampton to Guernsey when it hit the Casquets reef near
Alderney in heavy fog and sank within ten minutes with the loss of 77 lives. The first ship to the scene was the SS
Vera, amongst whose passengers were
Watford’s reserve side en route to play a series of friendly matches in
Jersey. The Watford players were
commended for their contribution to the rescue effort in helping to salvage and
comfort survivors from lifeboats – 67 of the 113 survivors were rescued by the Vera.

Quite why Watford’s reserve side
was playing friendlies in Jersey mid-season is not clear; in any event the
first team, either inspired by or oblivious to events in the channel, racked up
back to back victories on the succeeding days. Watford – having abandoned “West Herts” the previous summer
– beat Chesham 4-1 in the Bucks and Contiguous Counties League at Cassio Road
on the 31st and Uxbridge 4-2 in the Southern League Division 2 a day
later.

The wreck of the Stella lay hidden in the depths of the Channel until
located by local divers in 1973.

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